Ben Blitch Bossman Builder..... Another B4

Well, I am the man in charge for a couple of days while Chris B. is out of town. Just me and Ray from the Fairmont Park Commission are working our way through another set of terraces. Below is a step by step of the rock installation process. Measuring the grade and rise for each step, then creating the foundation with rocks ready to go, finally putting fill in over top of the rocks. Look at the size of the rock in this one. Tomorrow is more of the same and finishing a little rolling grade dip action. Just a few days left before I get to sleep in my own bed. I can't wait.

How THE Philly Rolls...

Okay, these people are awesome to work with. I really enjoyed working with them back in 2006 on Demo 1 and working with them now that they are organized and have some experienced is even better. Today we had a volunteer workday to take care of the last little section we have worked on all week. There was a bit of stone pitching.




Some folks built a really cool bench/rock ride




But, most importantly it seemed everyone had a good time.

Moving Dirt is Moving Dirt....

What beautiful trail over the last two days. We have been working on a terraced section that is to accommodate a number of different uses and it has also been choking down the existing, Gravel, yeah gravel, road. Can you believe it?

Here are some photos of the work thus far. Hope you enjoy, the terraces are 9" tall with a 9% rise between them and a rolling dip in the middle, so it is like a 10% then a positive 2% to the next rock step. We have used a laser level and a plethora of other tools to achieve something I am personally and professionally very proud of.

A day at work...AH...

What a great day at work, I have really enjoyed working with my old boss Chris Burnhardt, I wish we would have had a chance to actually work together under IMBA it has been a pleasure to do it this week.

Here are a few photos for your enjoyment. We have been building terraces for the last couple of days and have been using a laser level"ish" thing to try and dial in the risers. It worked great today and hopefully we will continue to have luck with it tomorrow. Check out Chris lining things up for the next terrace. 8% with a 9" rise. the dot tells you where to dig, the machine arm is my view for eight hours of the day. And the guy sitting down, well that is Ray, he's a city worker, but this is the only time you could catch him sitting down all day. He is actually a real kick butt worker.





Tomorrow will be a walk through with local landscape companies, then a volunteer day, should have some good photos for you tomorrow, so check back.

Wissa Revisited...

Today was a reintroduction to the Wiss. I am going to be operating a mini-x for the next few weeks building terraces and doing some bench cuts too. This is a great experience as I get to work with my old BOSSMAN Chris. Here are a few photos shot with the new camera. Enjoy...I get to check out mentally a bit this week. YEAH!

A two wheeled Evangelist

Chambersburg was quite the experience. A small town with great people, doing their best to do great things. I am very happy with the way the pump track turned out and certainly have a few lessons learned, but feel the technique and routine has tightened up significantly.

I am now in Philly working on the computer for the next two days. Monday will be a reintroduction to the project here at the Wiss. Then, it is two weeks of the craziness of the Sustainable Trails Initiative again.

Tomorrow, I will work on my presentation for the National Trails Symposium on the "Emerging Trend of Pocket Bike Parks".

Here are a few of the themes I am playing around with:

- Unstructured play

- civility

- Getting children outside

I will put a few more together and hopefully be able to eloquently explain myself to all of the trail "nuts" at the conference. This seems to be a chance to be a bit more of the evangelist.

Chambersburg...It is on...

photo courtesy of Larry Camps

I will be submitting all of my writing to the Chambersburg pumptrack blog for the next couple of days. Check it out and follow the Bike Reg. link if you want to make a donation.

For now it is twelve hour labors of love. Hope you enjoy.

Preperations..

Well, a camera is high on the list for tomorrow. It is that time again already. I need to get things prepped for leaving on Sunday heading up to Chambersburg. The project promises to be an awesome opportunity. Then it is back to Wissahickon to work with my old supervisor from IMBA, I can't wait to kick it in the woods with Chris.

Then, back in town for my class reunion...maybe. Let's see if those who don't know me can figure out which year...I love games. After that it is back up to the N. Side for fall work until the National Trails Symposium.

This is shaping up to become a busy Fall. Remember the trailer in the earlier post? I am getting really thrilled about seeing the country and "Digginit Good".

Back in Ashevegas enjoying life.

Well after an ominous couple days of driving through a minor tropical storm I arrived unscathed, except a broken throw out bearing. To find friends waiting and parties to attend. I love life and its fun little quandaries.

Here is the bicycle culture of my birth. Enjoy the article in the local paper and check out the photo. Just enter worlds tallest bike in youtube if'n ya wanna.

Stolen Photos of Jack Hammer of all trades

Check out the work in the Wissa. Oh yeah this is the dirtiest and most tired I have been at the end of the day in a long time. Photo credit goes to Mr. Dan "the voice of reason" Hudson.

Bent Creek of Philly

from pearcefamily.org

It is amazing what a little bit of old road bed eroded for a number of years with an exponential amount of use can lend itself to. Today we worked on a number of different projects in the Wissa, one of which being an ADA causeway to a pavilion the other being setting chokes on a causeway with an eight foot retaining wall, yeah that got a little hairy, again sorry about no pics, that is a priority for the trip back home this week is getting the camera fixed and/or getting a new one. After work I was able to pound out about an hour worth of riding to help set the mind straight and it was amazing how many times I rounded a bend and said, "boy does this feel like home." I will always love both BC and the Wissa.

Tomorrow will hopefully be getting the new causeway done and moving on to using poly pavement on it. I have heard about a couple of these things and this one also sounds interesting. Check it out.

Another one bites the dust.

Here we go again. Another camera has bitten the dust so I will have to be creative with images upcoming.

Today was a good introduction to the Wissa project. We placed some chokes and worked on a trail that saw no less than a couple thousand people walk on it just in the time we were there. What a crazy park. So check out these links for all the 411 on the Wissa.

Oh and enjoy this...it isn't my camera but I LOVE you tube. Have a laugh.